The Nuggets gathered Monday for their first formal practice in more than a week, having won just once in their past five games. But that skid was moved to the margins, briefly, replaced by talk of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Denver coach Michael Malone jabbed at President Donald Trump, who on Sunday tried to backtrack on the obscene remarks he made on immigration last week. Malone framed MLK Day more as a pressing, ongoing argument than a remembrance.

“Especially in the current climate, it’s that much more important,” Malone said as the Nuggets wound down a shootaround at their Pepsi Center practice court. “When you have a president making some of the comments that he has made, it’s so important to remember and honor the legacy of Dr. King and what his message was. Simple, but powerful. Fight for equality, fight for the respect of everybody. White, black, male, female. Doesn’t matter.”

Malone was referring to vulgar remarks Trump made Thursday while discussing an immigration deal that might include protections for people from Africa and Haiti.

Trump on Sunday said “I’m not a racist” after he expressed a desire to allow more immigrants from Norway, a primarily white nation.

The timing, then, seemed to give Malone extra energy to talk about the holiday.

“In today’s day and age, with everything we’re going through in communities across the country, (King’s) message is probably more prevalent and profound today and just as strong as it was back in the 1960s when the civil rights movement was in its heyday,” Malone said.

Malone also touted the NBA’s desire to allow its players more freedom of political expression, at least in relation to the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell. In Minnesota on Monday, Timberbwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns wore shoes with “I have a dream” and “EQUALITY’ decorated on the sides. And the Memphis Grizzlies wore alternate uniforms that referenced the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike in 1968, a key moment in the civil rights movement.

“It’s not a tyrant running the NBA,” Malone said. “We respect our players, and we want them to have a voice. We want them to use their voice, hopefully, in a respectful manner. … Our commissioner (Adam Silver) wants the players, the coaches — everybody who works under the NBA umbrella — to feel together and unified and to embrace everything out there.”

Nuggets guard Will Barton said the holiday, for him, is about trying to contribute something positive to his community.

“Growing up, I would tell myself if I made it to the NBA, I would do things like that because we didn’t have anyone,” he said. “I want kids to see something different, to see success and give them hope.”

covers baseball and the Rockies and all sorts of sports. He started working at The Denver Post while in high school before graduating from the University of Colorado. Reach him at ngroke@denverpost.com